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Pet pictures that save lives

The poignant story of two Great Danes languishing, unadoptable, in a U.K. animal shelter captured the attention of pet lovers around the world. Six-year-old Lily has been blind since she was a pup and her best friend, Maddison, has been her guide dog.

The story tugged at heart strings. But it was the photos of the two dogs that made their story irresistible.

Teresa Berg knows the importance of a good picture to help get pets adopted — and bad ones make her barking mad.

Berg, a Dallas portrait photographer who is usually hired to take portraits of individuals, families, babies and pets, volunteers her services to Dallas-area dog rescue missions. She teaches staff and adoption shelter volunteers how to take pictures of rescue animals, even with a simple point-and-shoot camera. The goal: Photos that are so engaging adoptions are virtually guaranteed.

Berg has built a career taking artful pictures. So when she decided to add a pet to her own family she was appalled at the quality of photographs on online adoption agencies’ websites — timid, unkempt animals peering through cage bars with menacing red eyes — hardly an animal you’d want in your home, says Berg. Those anguished photos may be effective at attracting donors. But they don’t inspire people to adopt, says Berg.

After adopting a small long-haired Dachshund she advised the rescue organization that they might expedite adoptions by using better pictures.

She was right. Using a few simple tricks, she was able to speed up the average adoption time from three to six months to as little as six to eight weeks. “Immediately we noticed the online hits went up tenfold. We knew we were on to something.”

“Our goal is to show the rescue animal as a pet that could come into your home — not distressed or damaged. We don’t want to play on people’s sympathy. The animals should seem happy and friendly — not traumatized, not pathetic. We don’t want to play the pity card.”

Berg says she wants each dog’s true personality to shine through.

Berg does admit, however, that if a rescue dog has just been spayed or neutered, “I have been known to Photoshop the scar.”

From her Dallas studio, Berg offers webinars instructing rescue staff and volunteers who don’t have photography skills or professional equipment on how to photograph a rescue dog as if they were a best-in-show purebred.

Berg also works with the Collin County Humane Society which struggles to find adoptive homes for hundreds of dogs each year. Because the numbers are overwhelming, Berg deals specifically with the hard-to-adopt animals — black dogs and seniors, and animals with physical injuries, for example. She recalls one dog that had no lower teeth because it had spent a lifetime attempting to chew through a chain around its neck.

It broke Berg’s heart to learn that 75 per cent of rescue dogs in Dallas are euthanized — a startling statistic that plays out in many urban centres, she says. The story is different in Toronto, however. The “low-kill” Toronto Humane Society, for example, reports a euthanasia rate of just 2.3 per cent.

Berg’s idea is catching on.

In Toronto, Berg disciple Karen Weiler has operated Posh Pets Photography for over a year. Just this week she started rescue volunteer work at Toronto Animal Services, taking professional pictures of animals offered for adoption.

“I started out as a wedding photographer,” says Weiler. But that career was short lived. “I’d rather photograph dogs than brides,” she says.

“Animals can’t speak for themselves,’ says Weiler, who aspires to give rescue cats and dogs a voice through her photographs.

The Toronto Humane Society, on the other hand, relies on the dedicated work of staff and volunteers to take their photos for their online adoption gallery — and the results are hit and miss.

Berg says it doesn’t have to be that way. Even with a basic point-and-shoot camera amateurs can take better photos. Her blog offers five simple tips on making the most of each dog:

Look for light. If you don’t have access to fancy equipment, find the biggest window you can, says Berg.

De-clutter the background. “I can’t tell you how many pictures I’ve seen of dogs sitting in front of baskets of laundry or a stack of empty pizza boxes.” Get them in a homey environment so people can imagine them curled up on the end of their bed.

Get down on your hands and knees. You need to get the proper perspective on the body of the dog. Dogs often look distorted when photographed from above.

Be patient. Get good doggie posture, not cowering and slinking shots. Above all, get the dog out of the cage, out from behind bars. You don’t want the dog to look cornered.

Make eye contact. Try to reveal a happy expression. Prospective adopters have to imagine the dog as part of their family.

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